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The liquid fossil fuel contaminated by water can make some troubles in combustion processes and endurance of a combustion system. The optical sensor monitoring the water concentration instantaneously in a fuel pipeline is an effective means for controlling the fuel quality.

In two component liquid flows of oil and water, the flow pattern and characteristics of water droplets are changed with various flow conditions. Then, the light scattering of the optical sensor measuring the water concentration is also dependent on the flow patterns and droplet characteristics. Therefore, it is important to investigate the detailed behavior of water droplets in the pipeline of the fuel transportation system.

In this study, the flow patterns and characteristics of water droplets in the turbulent pipe flow of two component liquids of gasoline and water were investigated using optical measurements. The dispersion of water droplets in the gasoline flow was visualized, and the size and velocity distributions of water droplets were simultaneously measured by phase Doppler technique.

The water droplets were spherical and dispersed homogeneously in all ranges of this experiment. The velocity of water droplets was not dependent on the droplet size and the mean velocity of droplets was equal to that of the gasoline flow. The mean diameter of water droplets decreased and the number density increased with Reynolds number of the gasoline flow.